Startup mentors discuss strategies and challenges of creating a new business.

Embrace Failure, Reject Bureaucracy

GUEST MENTOR, Are Traasdahl, founder and CEO of Tapad: Creating and cultivating a great company culture should be every founder’s top priority. It’s obvious, right? If you hire great talent but don’t create an environment that brings out the best in them, you’ve lost half the battle. Unfortunately most overlook it — or stall until it’s too late.

Not only do we talk about our culture at our startup (the cross-device ad-tech firm Tapad) more than most, we actually put it in print and consider it the most important piece of art in our offices. We refer to it as our constitution — created collaboratively with input from every employee at Tapad (each of whom signed it) — it defines the kind of place we all want to work. I think these are some pretty good rules for every company to follow.

Break the Rules, Define New Rules, Make Them Play by Our Rules. Big companies attract risk-averse executives and live by the status quo. Disruption is a startup’s greatest weapon.

Think Big. You know the old brainstorming adage, “no bad ideas?” Well of course, there are — uh, Crystal Pepsi anyone? — but start with the belief that nothing is impossible. Identify a big, difficult problem and own the solution. Out of every 10 ideas, maybe two will make it to the alpha stage and only one to beta, but that one may well be the game-changer.

Hire Slow and Smart. Hiring carefully is critical — Tapad takes on only about 1% of people interviewed. And if someone meets every other unbelievably-hard-to-find criteria except being a good cultural fit? Don’t hire them. Best case, they won’t last. Worst case? They’ll poison the well.

Maintain a Maniacal Focus on Dominating One Thing. Remaining focused while innovating is hard, but manageable if you plan for it. Allocate 80% of time to focus on perfecting and evolving the core product or service, and the remaining 20% on the “think big” stuff. That disproportionate amount of focus will almost always result in sector dominance.

Use Technology to Innovate. Take whatever your core strength is and use it to innovate your way to the top. (In our case, it is our technology). If you think your product is doing something great now, you’ll be set up for the big win by building the product that does something great for tomorrow.

Fight Like the The Underdog. So, you’ve cracked the code, nailed the big idea and even the snarkiest of tech blogs is singing your praises. But until your revenues are measured in billions with a capital B, your startup is the underdog. Keeping that scrappy, “whatever-it-takes” spirit is the surest way to surprise them all.

Build Brands for the Long Haul, and Put Integrity First. Sound like a contradiction? Not at all. Fighting hard and breaking rules does not indicate the absence of integrity. For example, our company has invested heavily in consumer-privacy protections since day one, before we could even afford it. But for us, it was never worth the long-term cost to our reputation and without question, our brand today is infinitely more valuable as a result.

Speak Up About The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Give everyone the obligation to dissent. Everyone. Get the bad and ugly out in the open so you can do something about it. Someone sees something wrong? They must say something (and of course, include a proposed solution). Without this, leadership quickly becomes deluded and assumes everything is just ducky while the team is brewing up a big batch of resentment. Nothing good ever comes from a place of resentment.

Say No to Bureaucracy, Say Yes to Doing Whatever it Takes. A “whatever it takes” attitude — and nipping bureaucracy in the bud — are the only ways to prevent the slow creep of destructive, bureaucratic nonsense, beware decisions made by committees, hourslong meetings and CYA memos becoming de rigueur.

Protect a Culture of Work Hard, Play Hard and Mutual Respect. As anyone at a startup will tell you, it is very hard work, a daily barrage of challenges big and small lobbed at your head. There is certainly no place for a loafer to hide. So by hiring the best and the brightest in the first place, and then making sure you recognize the hard work with some good old-fashioned fun, the mutual respect will follow.

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